Archive for the ‘Torley Linden’ Tag

After doing the photo set for the Black Ice pictures, I needed to go back in and check on the WindLight setting I’d used, so I could credit it properly. Fortunately, since I have some hundred or more WindLight settings, I found the right one quickly (Torley Linden’s “BIGSUN: Awwyeah” [grin]). But in the process, I had to do some hopping around to compare lighting and sun size, so as to make sure I did have the right thing. I ended up on the roof of my house, which has several trees around it, especially now with the winter decorations. I happened to position myself in an excellent spot to experiment with poses and expressions, and with shadows turned on (as in the original photos). The feathery cape from the RFyre outfit I was wearing added another layer of light interaction, and I reeled off several photos.

I would have been willing to do many more; but turning on shadows makes my computer run like a stoned sloth — it creeps. Some good shots were lost because I’d click the shutter button, but it would take several frames of refresh before the screen was copied. Other problems were less mechanical in nature and more a function of what I had available to work with in expressions and software to model myself. Still, I picked up some interesting bits here, and may have learned a little as a result.

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Contact Sheet is an irregular column of selected photographs and portraits from Residents of Second Life and other virtual worlds. All rights to featured images are reserved to the artists under appropriate copyright laws. Click on the links as necessary to go to the required blog, Flickr or Koinup page. Please go to these artists’ pages in any case to leave comments, (as well as comments here), if you have an account on the appropriate service.

Suggestions are appreciated; please send descriptions and links to me by in-world IM, notecard, E-mail to harper.ganesvoort@gmail.com, or leave a comment below.

NOTICE: Some of the photos/links may contain nudity. Viewer discretion advised.

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Lost Worlds are sims or builds that have disappeared from Second Life for one reason or another — often because the owner/builder can’t afford tier. Sometimes the owner just loses interest and tears the build down. Other times it’s only a temporary site or exhibit, as in artworks or the temporary sims done for various fairs. But for whatever reason, they are gone, with nothing left for us but the photos taken of them.

Let’s take a retrospective of some places that are now gone…. If you know who built some of these places, because it isn’t always clear to me who did them, please leave a comment below for all of us.

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Hitomi Mokusei has documented many lost places, especially the builds of AM Radio, in a Flickr group I’m a member of. She took this shot of gargoyle fountains near a bridge at night in Sanctum Sanctorum back in 2007. The builder appears to be Baron Grayson.

Stephen Venkman worked this shot up as an experiment, if I follow him correctly. The original was taken in La Reve.

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Getting back to AM Radio, Brie Pinazzo gave us this shot of the train in The Far Away, perhaps AM’s most remembered build. This engine mired in a wheatfield was always interesting, and the secret it held never failed to amuse.

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Torley Linden stepped aside from his eternal fascination with watermelon-colored things (Sorry, Torley; had to get that in [grin]) to take this picture of the Grand Staircase in the Opéra Populaire in Intemptesta Nox. The builders chose to “burn it down” not long after I became a Resident, and so I never got to see this lovely place.

Copyright (C) 2007 by Torley Linden

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And, finally, “ZERO-to-ZERO” gives us a pair of contrasts from the great corridors of White Taj and Black Taj:

It isn’t often I write about something that’s just been released. But, after getting the notice from Sascha’s Designs and stopping in to look at it — and also spending some very nice time chatting with Sascha Frangilli and a pair of Dutch visitors — I decided that this was so good that it was definitely worth talking about. The only trick was what hair to wear with the magnificent jacket.

Doesn’t look like much here, does it, if you focus on just the blue undershirt and the white pants? (In this color choice, there’s also a pink top; but I favor red hair, as you know.) It’s the dressy jacket that makes this iteration of the outfit so nice — one of the nicest dress jackets I’ve seen yet in my fashion history in world.

The weather's getting colder all the time now, and we start breaking out our woolens even in the virtual world of Second Life. This black cardigan with white linen blouse, from INDI, is particularly nice for the late fall and maybe even early winter.

I was chilly with the November breeze,
and it was a courtly thing you did
draping the sweater over my shoulders,
taking care to smooth the wool
with a touch that whispered
that later you would claim the garment,
and the shiver taking it would bring
was something you coveted
with breathless avarice.

How many remember the Master of Watermelons — or at least of the colors of watermelons in Second Life — Torley Linden? Since I don’t read the Big Blog — also known as the Official Blogs — as often as I should these days, I’ve probably missed out on some of his excellent tutorials, both text and video.

Well, Torley Lives! And he just wrote a doozy this weekend. If you haven’t opened your copy of The Sandbox, the official Second Life newsletter, follow this link to his article. He gives us the settings he always alters to his preferences when he tries out a new viewer, official or TPV. He’s also asking what you would do, and he has a whole bunch of replies already. (Hopefully it won’t top out!)

Like this:

O brothers mine, take care! Take care!
The great white witch rides out to-night.
Trust not your prowess nor your strength,
Your only safety lies in flight;
For in her glance there is a snare,
And in her smile there is a blight.

After seeing the original at Harper Beresford's blog (A Passion for Virtual Fashion), I had to give Eshi Otawara's "Black Gems are Forever" a shot of my own. However, I decided I'd discard the pants she had in the confection, and used an old skirt from Anubis Style instead (which I think was created for the old Rezzable "Black Swan" show, as that was the name on the gown).

The great white witch you have not seen?
Then, younger brothers mine, forsooth,
Like nursery children you have looked
For ancient hag and snaggle-tooth;
But no, not so; the witch appears
In all the glowing charms of youth….

I especially love Eshi's headdress of jet-topped pins and a "veil" of thin, flexible "wires." I've pinned it into a fri.day coiffure -- normally the SL epitome of casual style; but with this headdress added to it....

But though she always thus appears
In form of youth and mood of mirth,
Unnumbered centuries are hers,
The infant planets saw her birth;
The child of throbbing Life is she,
Twin sister to the greedy earth.

Candy Nail has an amazing variety of prim nails, including these black talons with jewels stuck all over them.

And back behind those smiling lips,
And down within those laughing eyes,
And underneath the soft caress
Of hand and voice and purring sighs,
The shadow of the panther lurks,
The spirit of the vampire lies….

Note the black jet choker and the earrings, which mirror the headdress. There's also a ring, but the nails knocked it off, of course; one of the two things I don't appreciate about prim nails, no matter how good they make you look.

Oh! she has seen your strong young limbs,
And heard your laughter loud and gay,
And in your voices she has caught
The echo of a far-off day,
When man was closer to the earth;
And she has marked you for her prey.

She feels the old Antaean strength
In you, the great dynamic beat
Of primal passions, and she sees
In you the last besieged retreat
Of love relentless, lusty, fierce,
Love pain-ecstatic, cruel-sweet.

O, brothers mine, take care! Take care!
The great white witch rides out to-night.
O, younger brothers mine, beware!
Look not upon her beauty bright;
For in her glance there is a snare,
And in her smile there is a blight.

Second Life® with Harper, Conan, Jem, Diana and Morgan

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